With Ed Reed, New York Jets' Defense Has Shades of AFC Championship Past

By Harrison Turkheimer

With the reports that Ed Reed has agreed to terms with the New York Jets, there have comments left and right. If you look at this from a football perspective, it’s a low-risk, high-reward move for Gang Green.

The Jets currently have the fourth-best defense in the NFL. They have a running game that is by committee and a quarterback that that has shown moments of brilliance. Does is sound familiar?

It’s clearly the blueprint that Jets had in 2009 and 2010: run the Ball, keep it simple, play good defense. How’d that turn out? Back-to-back trips to the AFC Championship. Now don’t get me wrong, this would be an amazing run and an even better story of these Jets, who plenty saw as helpless prior to the season. In fact, if the season ended today, the Jets would be in the playoffs as the sixth seed.

With the addition of Reed, the Jets are able to play some more mind games on the opposing offense. This is head coach Rex Ryan’s mantra. Since he had taken back the reins and play-calling of the defense, you can see the improvement. With a defensive line that has been stellar, the only thing that was missing was a better secondary — the ability to have Ed Reed hawk the quarterback relieves the other safeties of following the ball and will mix up coverage.

The next stretch of the Jets’ schedule is very promising. It’s a seven-game stretch that will make or break this team. Coming out of the bye this Sunday, the Jets have a lot to prove. Did they take the time to relax and refocus? Did quarterback Geno Smith watch film and learn from his errors? Now with the addition of Reed, this defensive will dial up blitz packages and mixed coverage.

This can spell nothing but trouble for the rest of the league down the stretch, and could potentially make or break Ryan’s future in New York.